Yesterday my fellow students and I went on a walking tour of downtown Torino. Our student services coordinator, Gian Lorenzo, gave us a native torinese's take on the city - we saw fancy shopping districts, fish markets, beautiful churches, public libraries, popular bars and royal palaces. It was rather nice seeing all the landmarks of Torino, and at least I got most of my touristy photos out of the way (see below):
Sacrilegious? Doubtful. Offensive? Possibly. Good for a laugh? Oh yeah. This sculptural fountain is a representation of the river Dora, one of the bodies of water running through Torino. The river Po is depicted on the other side of the street as a lounging man, but this one was more fun. We spent a good amount of the day walking through piazzas and along the portico-lined streets of downtown Torino. I found out the uninterrupted porticos that go for miles up and down Via Roma were built in the 16th century to keep the King and Queen from ever being touched by rain or snow. Then we had a lovely picnic in Parco Valentino where we imbibed limonata and delighted in prosciutto-wrapped cheese. Yum!
I can't imagine how much we walked yesterday, but we started at 9:00AM and finally got on the bus home around 4:00PM. If I had to guess I'd say I walked 8 miles, that's what - 11 kilometers? (Note to self: learn the metric system.) So if I keep this up, I believe my fears of imminent weight gain due to gelato addiction shall be subdued.
Today we took the bus about 5 minutes to a place called Gallery 8, which our IT guy at school said has an electronic store and some shops. Well, when we arrived we realized it was an actual galleria - a giant mall! Imagine my surprise and uncontrollable excitement. Luckily I got out of there with only spending 10 euro on a few tank tops since the weather here hasn't been much below 80 yet.
Lots of love,
Brittany Lauren
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